Megan Rose Dickey, provided by |
March 8, 2013

That means one day, you may be able to pass along those tracks you don't listen to anymore to a family member, friend, or even a complete stranger.

The patent outlines how users could either sell or loan "used" content to another person by transferring their ownership rights to them.

So if you buy a song and realize you don't like it anymore, you could transfer your ownership rights to another person. At that point, you would lose access to the song and only the second buyer would be able to listen to it.

In some cases, the iTunes store and the creator of the content would take a cut from the resale. And content creators can also set limits. A music label could decide that a user can only resell or lend the content one year after the original purchase date. It could also require the resale price to be at least $0.80, for example.

But just because Apple filed this patent, it doesn't necessarily mean it will implement the system and let users loan and resale content.